Steffi Graf - Biography - IMDb Steffi Graf Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trivia (31) | Personal Quotes (1) Overview (4) 5' 9¼" (1.76 m) Mini Bio (1) Steffi Graf started playing tennis at age 3, coached by her father. Under the local tennis program, as the best girl player, she was matched up against the worst boy player -- who was usually Boris Becker . After winning the German Juniors and the European Juniors, she turned pro on October 18, 1982. The next day, she lost to Tracy Austin , who was less-than impressed with the 13 year old, telling reporters there were "hundreds of girls" like Graf back in the States. Peter kept a tight rein on Steffi's schedule to ensure that she wouldn't "burn out" as she climbed up the rankings. She finally won her first title on April 13, 1986, defeating Chris Evert at the Family Circle Cup.

In total, Graf won 107 singles titles (third all-time behind Martina Navratilova and Evert), including 22 majors (second all-time). She found herself at the center of a near-tragedy on April 30, 1993. As arch rival Monica Seles was resting during a changeover at the Hamburg Open, a man made his way through the stands, and plunged a knife into her back. At first, it was thought the attack was prompted by the conflict in Seles's native Yugoslavia. But it turned out Guenter Parche was a Graf fan, and reasoned that if he took Seles out, Graf would regain the #1 ranking. The attack reverberated across sports. It also changed the course of tennis history. Seles was off the court for 27 months. Although she won the 1996 Australian Open and was a finalist at the 1996 US Open and the 1998 French Open, Seles never regained her dominating form. Graf visited Seles in the hospital, but didn't comment publicly about the incident until 2004.

Graf retired on August 13, 1999 after beating Martina Hingis in the French Open, then losing to Lindsay Davenport at Wimbledon. By this time, she was dating Andre Agassi , whom also won the French Open, but was a finalist at Wimbledon that year. With only their mothers as witnesses, they were married on October 22, 2001 at his Las Vegas home four days before the birth of their son, Jaden. Daughter Jaz was born on October 3, 2003. Famous for her killer instinct and business-like approach, at times she displayed a sense of humor. During a tight 1995 Wimbledon match against Kimiko Date , she was serving when a man yelled out "Steffi!" Everyone, including Steffi, laughed. Composing herself, she readied to serve when the man shouted "Steffi! Will you marry me?" The fans burst into peals of laughter, and play was delayed for a couple of minutes.

Steffi readied to serve, tossed the ball, caught it, turned, and yelled to the man "How much money do you have?" Graf lost the set, but won the match to face (and defeat) Arantxa Sánchez Vicario for the title. - IMDb Mini Biography By: ldavis-2 Spouse (1) ( 22 October 2001 - present) (2 children) Trivia (31) First tennis player to win a calendar-year Grand Slam and an Olympic gold medal (1988). Posed for the 1997 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in an effort to "feminize" her image. Only player to win all four majors singles twice in two different decades. Only player to win all four majors singles at least four times. Only player to win all four majors on four different surfaces (carpet, clay, grass, hard court). First player to beat the top three seeds in a major. Was the #1 singles player for 186 straight weeks, broken by Roger Federer in August 2007. Her stay at #1 for a record 377 weeks total still stands.

At the age 13, became the second-youngest player ever to earn an international ranking. German Sportswoman of the Year for four consecutive times from 1986 to 1989 and in 1999. Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year 1989 Heads the non-profit foundation Children for Tomorrow, supporting and initiating projects that provide assistance to children and families who have become the victims of war, persecution and violence. Born at 4:40 AM CET (Central Europe Time) Career Prize Money: $20,130,835.00 Daughter of Peter Graf and Heidi Graf . Sister of Michael Graf . Peter spent nearly two years in jail after being convicted in 1997 of evading $7 million in taxes on her earnings. Won a legal battle against Microsoft Germany about fake nude photos of her that were posted on a Web site run by the company. The photos were replaced in June at Graf's request, but the company declined to sign a formal agreement that they wouldn't use them again, so Graf sued.

The state appeals court in Cologne upheld a ruling last October by a lower court, which had ruled that Microsoft Germany was responsible for the content of the site and must ensure that such pictures don't appear there (27 May 2002). Gave birth to Jaden Gil Agassi, 3 weeks prematurely, on 26 October 2001 at 3:30 AM at Valley Hospital in Las Vegas, weighing 5 pounds, 14 ounces. While it was thought the baby's name originated from the Hebrew, meaning "God has listened," in a February 2002 interview, Graf disclosed that Jaden is a masculine form of jade, a word she had always liked, and Gil was in honor of Agassi's trainer, Gil Reyes . Gave birth to her daughter Jaz Elle on 3 October 2003. Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on 11 July 2004. Ranked #3 in a survey by German network ZDF searching the 100 best German sportsmen of all time (19 November 2004).

Upon the birth of Christian Sampras, son of Pete Sampras and Bridgette Wilson-Sampras , London bookmakers gave the baby a 2,000-1 shot to beat Jaden Gil Agassi in a Wimbledon final. She and Andre Agassi are the first two players to win all four majors singles titles and an Olympic gold medal. Won the Australian Open (1988-1990, 1994), French Open (1987, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999), Wimbledon (1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996), US Open (1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996). Was chosen "most admirable German woman" by the readers of "Amica" magazine (September 2005).

When they both won the singles' event at Wimbledon in 1992, she showed no interest in her later husband Andre Agassi at all. The officials didn't allow him to dance with her at the tournament's banquet, although he had been secretly pining for her as far back as 1990. Resides with her family in Las Vegas. Subject of "I'm in Love with Steffi Graf" by Hugh Laurie on A Bit of Fry and Laurie (1987). Niece of Christel Ginepri , who acts as her spokesperson. Two months after he resigned as Agassi's business manager in October 2008, Perry Rogers sued Graf for $50,000 in management fees. Steffi Graf Biography (Tennis Player) Birthplace: Bruhl, Germany Best known as: 1988 Grand Slam winner Nicknamed "Fraulein Forehand," Steffi Graf was the dominant women's tennis player of the early 1990s. Big and athletic, with a powerful serve, she won an amazing 22 major championships, including seven singles titles at Wimbledon.

In 1988 she completed a rare Grand Slam, winning the U.S., Australian and French Opens and Wimbledon in one year. During the first half of the 1990s she and Spain's Arantxa Sanchez Vicario had one of the more exciting rivalries in tennis, with Graf emerging as the stronger player. Graf retired in 1999. The same year she began a relationship with tennis star Andre Agassi ; they married in October 2001 and have two children. Copyright © 1998-2017 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved. Advertisement Advertisement Graf's Father Sentenced to Jail - latimes Graf's Father Sentenced to Jail Jurisprudence: He gets three years, nine months for tax fraud. Prosecutors say they'll appeal. January 25, 1997 |MARY WILLIAMS WALSH | TIMES STAFF WRITER BERLIN — A state trial court sentenced Peter Graf, the father of tennis star Steffi Graf, to three years and nine months imprisonment for evading about $7.4 million of taxes on his daughter's income, as prosecutors who had asked for a stiffer sentence looked on in disappointment.

"He was stubborn and ambitious, and his ambitions misled him," Judge Joachim Plass said of Peter Graf, a rags-to-riches former used-car salesman who helped turn his daughter into the world's best woman tennis player. Plass, head of the five-member trial panel, further said he could find no evidence that Steffi Graf had participated in any tax fraud. He recommended that an ongoing German investigation against her be halted. Steffi Graf remains the subject of a tax investigation in the United States, however. And, as Judge Plass noted, she is also being investigated by the Women's Tennis Assn., because evidence surfaced during her father's trial that she had taken appearance money to play in certain tournaments, in violation of the WTA's code of conduct. Steffi Graf has continued to play tennis throughout the case and did not testify at the trial. Her father has so far served 16 months in "investigative custody," but was allowed last November to post $3.3-million bond, surrender his passport, and go live at home.

The Graf tax-evasion scandal has aroused intense public interest in Germany, and several hundred curiosity-seekers stood quietly in front of the courthouse in Mannheim on Friday, hoping to catch a glimpse of the star athlete's father as he came to hear his verdict and sentence. The German income tax bite is already sharp, and with public funds for social programs running short, there is intense concern about who is paying their taxes, who is cheating, and how the laws ought to be changed to redistribute the burden. Most German-born star athletes already have left the country for such tax havens as Monaco. Until the Grafs' house was raided by tax authorities in May 1995 and Peter Graf was arrested the following August, Steffi Graf was seen as a kind of national hero because she had stayed on in Germany and appeared to be paying her "fair share." Even now, Steffi Graf has avoided much blame in public eyes by arguing that since she was only 14 when she started her career, she quite naturally let her father handle all of her personal finances. Even when she reached adulthood, she says, she continued to let him receive all of her earnings and file her tax returns.

She says she had no idea that he was grossly understating her income and in some years not filing tax returns at all. Since the tax-evasion scandal broke, she has made back-tax payments of more than $13 million. It now appears she might have overpaid. The prosecution had called for a sentence of six years and nine months for Peter Graf, who committed his fraud by creating shell companies, called Sunpark Sports, in the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles. He had then asked tournament officials, and the companies whose products Steffi endorsed, to channel her fees through these companies. In his remarks Friday, Judge Plass said he thought Steffi Graf's corporate sponsors should have suspected something was wrong when asked to send money to companies outside Germany. "They obviously got wind of [the evasion], but you can't accuse them of being an accessory," he said, noting that Peter Graf had misrepresented the shell companies' role and ownership to them. The court also sentenced a tax advisor who helped Graf set up the fraud, Joachim Eckhardt, to two years and six months. Many observers of the high-profile trial had been expecting hefty fines in addition to prison terms.

But Plass said that since the Graf family assets were still blended, he couldn't fine the father without affecting the non-indicted daughter. The judge also pointed out that Graf had never been convicted of a crime before, that he had made his daughter "a good ambassador for Germany," and that he was pushed into committing his crimes by others. In earlier trial testimony, Peter Graf had accused the tax officials of his home state, Baden-Wuerttemberg, of telling him that he could get special tax relief as an inducement for keeping his superstar daughter in Germany. The prosecutors said Friday that they would appeal Graf's sentence--a move that means Graf will remain more or less a free man for now, because the German legal system allows some convicted defendants to stay at home while their sentences are being appealed. Graf's main defense attorney, Franz Salditt, said he viewed the judge's decision with "great satisfaction." * Steffi Graf. Biography, news, photos and videos Horoscope : Capricorn Stefanie Maria Graf was born on June 14, 1969, to Peter and Heidi Graf in Mannheim, Germany.

Her father supported the family by selling cars and insurance and took up coaching tennis to earn some extra income. After Steffi revealed an interest in the game, Peter gave her a wooden racket and the two began hitting a ball around the living room. She progressed quickly, playing her first tournament aged five it proved a frustrating experience, however, and she left the court in tears after being defeated. Undiscouraged, Steffi went on to win the junior tournament the following year, displaying the determination that was to become her hallmark. Supremely talented, by the time she was eight she was committed to the sport, training with her father in the early hours of the morning before heading off to school. Driven by her love of tennis she quit school and joined the professional circuit in 1982. With her father taking care of schedules, coaches and finances, Steffi was free to concentrate solely on her game. Peter Graf admitted that his biggest challenge during those early years was preventing his daughter at 13 years and four months, the second youngest player to receive a WTA ranking from burning herself out.

Steffi won her first grand slam aged 17, and trumped the victory a year later by winning the "golden slam" four grand slams plus an Olympic gold medal. Yet in 1990 her career was almost derailed when her father was jailed for tax evasion. Steffi who once said, "I owe everything to my father" was devastated. She later reflected, "I was thinking of quitting everything. Leaving Germany, tennis, everything." But Steffi lived for the game and, despite the traumas of her family life, she managed to carry on. From 1987 through the mid-Nineties, Steffi's tennis could not be faulted. Known for her steady demeanour and perfectionism, she maintained the number one title for 377 weeks over the course of her career a world record and became the highest-earning female athlete of all time. However, after knee surgery cost her eight months of recuperation in 1997, the champion tennis player struggled to regain her form, dropping out of the rankings for the first time since 1983.

And just when Steffi seemed back on track, landing another grand slam in Paris in 1999, she abruptly announced her retirement from tennis. After being defeated at Wimbledon that year, Steffi realized that her love for the game had diminished. "For the first time I missed the joy of playing tennis. It was a strange feeling which I had never experienced before," she revealed. Saying she felt she had no more to accomplish, the champion left the sport with "no regrets" about her decision. Since her retirement, the former child prodigy has concentrated on her charitable foundation, Children For Tomorrow, and her sports management company. During her career, Steffi's love life was kept low profile. She had only been linked to a few men, among them tennis player Alex Mronz and Formula One driver Michael Bartels. "Most girls only think of boys, but I think only of tennis," she once said. Falling in love with fellow tennis star Andre Agassi , brought her the best of both worlds, however. "Andre has made my life so exciting and shown me what I was missing," she says.

"I had so many incredible highs during my career, but this is the happiest I've ever been." The two wed on October 22, 2001, in Las Vegas. Four days later Steffi gave birth to their first child, Jaden Gil followed, in 2003, by a little girl, Jaz Elle. At last it seems that Steffi has met her match. © 2000-2016, HELLO!

Stefanie Graf Stefanie Graf 23-time major champion, 12-time finalist Career Titles Winner 1987, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996 Olympics Winner of the Women’s Singles Exhibition Tennis Tournament at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games Gold Medal in Women’s Singles at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games Bronze Medal in Women’s Doubles at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games Silver Medal in Women’s Singles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games Fed Cup Member of the German Federation Cup Team 1986-1987, 1989, 1991-1993, 1996 Member of the German Championship Federation Cup Team 1987, 1992 Overall Record 28-4 Stefanie Graf Stefanie Graf Citizenship: DEU Born: June 14, 1969 in Bruhl, Germany Played: Right-handed With 22 major singles titles and the only player to win the “Golden Grand Slam,” capturing all four majors and an Olympic Gold Medal in the same year, Steffi Graf

 laid claim to being anointed one of the greatest women’s players in history.

While Margaret Court owns the record for most major titles (24), no female player since the onset of the Open Era in 1968 won more majors than the versatile Graf, who accumulated championships regardless of playing surface. The German also placed a stranglehold on the world No. 1 ranking for 377 cumulative weeks, the longest reign of any male or female player in history. For a women’s record 186 consecutive weeks – from August 17, 1987 to March 10, 1991 – Graf was atop the world of tennis. Starting with the 1987 French and lasting until the 1990 French, Graf advanced to 13 consecutive major singles finals, winning nine of them. On tennis’s biggest stages at Wimbledon, the Australian, French and US Opens, Graf was a finalist 31 times, compiling a 282-34 record; a 90 percent clip.

With her devastating inside-outside forehand, perhaps the best and biggest single shot the women’s game has ever witnessed, Graf carved out a dominant stretch of excellence: She holds the record for the longest consecutive stretch ranked in the world Top 2 – 10 years, 3 months, 1 week – stretching from March 2, 1987 to June 8, 1997. Graf compiled a 902-115 (.887) career singles match record, just percentage points away from all-time leader Margaret Court (.914) and Chris Evert (.901). Her 107 career titles rank right below Navratilova (167) and Evert (157).

Graf was the International Tennis Federation World Champion a record seven times (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1996) and honored as the WTA Player of the Year eight times (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996). Following her fourth of five championships at the US Open in 1995, Graf became the only player male or female player in history to win each of the four major singles titles at least four times. Four times in her career she won three of the four majors contested in a given year (1989, 1993, 1995, and 1996).

Graf captured the Australian Open four times (1988, 1989, 1990, 1994); the French six times (1987, 1988, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999), Wimbledon seven times (1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1996) and the US Open five times (1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 1996). She lost ten or less matches at each major (47-6 Australian; 87-10 French; 75-8 Wimbledon; 73-10 US Open). After winning her sixth French and advancing to the Wimbledon Ladies Championship final in 1999, the German nicknamed the “Fraulein Forehand” (by Bud Collins, for her devastating trademark shot) retired from tennis.

Only four other players in history had achieved a calendar year Grand Slam (Maureen Connolly, Court, Don Budge, and Rod Laver twice). She had earned $21,895,277 in career prize money. In head-to-head competition against players also ranked No. 1 the world during her 17-year career, Graf posted an 87-41 record. Against No. 2 ranked players she was a remarkable 42-5; 100-23 versus No. 3; 94-6 against No. 4 and 28-6 versus No. 5. Cumulatively, she was 440-91 against 57 players ranked the world top 10, never losing a match to 21 of them, and only once to 12 others. In her 32 trips to a major singles final, Graf faced Spain’s Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario in major singles finals seven times, going 5-2. Monica Seles was an opponent in six major finals and the duo spilt at 3-3.

Graf and Navratilova faced each other six times and Graf had the advantage, 4-2. “Steffi Graf is the best all-around player,” said Evert, the Hall of Famer whose name is always mentioned as one of the all-time greats. “Martina won more on fast courts and I won more on slow courts, but Steffi came along and won more titles on both surfaces.” Like many European players who achieved stardom on the professional tour, Graf was taught how to hit a tennis ball at an extremely young age. Her father Peter began teaching his daughter at age 3. Focused and driven to become a champion, Graf hit the junior tournament circuit with abandon, becoming a European Champion 12s and 18s in 1982. She turned professional in 1982, at age 13, and her carefully developed maturation was keenly managed by her father Peter and her coach Pavel Složil, limiting the number of tournaments she entered and astutely grooming her all-court game. There was no discernable difference between Graf’s playing styles or court demeanor, whether she played on hard, grass or clay courts.

“She played like a robot, like a machine, no emotions … strong with a stone face,” said fellow German Claudia Kohde-Kilsch, who won eight WTA tour singles titles during her career, but was 2-12 versus Graf. Graf had the athletic skills necessary to become a champion. She had what her competitors said was the best footwork in the game. She was immensely fit due to a structured and rigorous training schedule that made her strong, fast and quick, her legs being a weapon themselves. She attacked the ball on the rise, lifting herself off the ground – and nearly out of her shoes – to pound her forehand drive. Her timing was impeccable, honed with hours of serious practice time. Graf’s mental toughness and desire to win gave her an edge few could match. She said that the game’s top players helped her raise her level, but the true competitor was herself. Her professional career began modestly in October 1982 with a 6-4, 6-0 loss at Stuttgart, Germany against 20-year-old Tracy Austin, who had won the US Open in 1979 and 1981. The following year Graf played her first full professional season.

The first of her 107 tournament victories came on April 13, 1986 when the 16-year-old Graf defeated Evert at the Family Circle Cup in Hilton Head, South Carolina, 6-4, 7-5. A superstar was unleashed and over the next four years Graf won 46 WTA Tournaments, her finest season coming in 1989 when she captured 14 tiles. Graf’s ascent to greatness was produced at a slow burn, then turned red hot. She captured her first major championship at the French Open in 1987, defeating Navratilova 6-4, 4-6, 8-6. In 1988 and 1989, Graf was the most dominant player in the world, winning seven of the eight majors contested (she lost in the 1989 French Open final) and by the end of the 1990 season won eight of 12 major titles in a three-year stretch, was a finalist in three majors and a semifinalist at Wimbledon.

Her cumulative record placed her in rarified space: She was 78-4 in major tournament play those three years. In winning the 1988 Grand Slam and Olympic Gold medal, Graf dispatched Chris Evert at the Australian (6-1, 7-6), Natasha Zvereva at the French (6-0, 6-0), Navratilova at Wimbledon (5-7, 6-2, 6-1), Gabriela Sabatini at the US Open (6-3, 3-6, 6-1), and Sabatini at the 1988 Games in Seoul (6-3, 6-3). Graf made a bid to capture back-to-back Olympic Gold Medals at the 1992 Barcelona Games, but was defeated by upstart Jennifer Capriati. “She was just dominating,” Mary Joe Fernandez explains. “She was winning her matches so fast.

People went out against Steffi knowing they were going to lose, it was a just a matter of how long you were able to keep her out there.” If not for the upset defeat to 17-year-old Sánchez -Vicario at the 1989 French Open, a match that she led 5-3 in the third, Graf would have claimed back-to-back calendar Grand Slams. At the Australian she toppled Helena Sukova (6-4, 6-4), took Wimbledon for a second straight time over Navratilova (6-2, 6-7, 6-1) and defended her US Open crown over Navratilova (3-6, 7-5, 6-1). While Graf had to deal with assorted injuries from 1991-1996, particularly early in the tour season which forced her to miss three Australian Opens, she was still winning major titles at a regular rate. Three straight Wimbledons were won from 1991-93.

The 1993 season saw her flirt with another potential Grand Slam as she took all but the Australian (4-6, 6-3, 6-2 loss to Monica Seles). She won three of four majors in both 1995 and 1996 (injuries forcing her to withdraw from the Australian). It wasn’t until the 1997 season that Graf’s knees and back began to flare up enough to affect her play. She missed winning a major for the first time in 10 years and saw another rising young player, Martina Hingis, take her spot as the world No. 1 ranked player. Graf battled through those injuries, closing out her career in 1999 with a French Open title at age 30, appropriately over Hingis who became her heir apparent, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. Her final major tournament appearance came in the 1999 Wimbledon final where she fell to Lindsay Davenport, 6-4, 7-5.

Graf’s retirement in 1999 coincidentally came when other celebrity athletes also closed out their careers, including Michael Jordan, John Elway, Wayne Gretzky, Barry Sanders, and fellow German star Boris Becker. “I have done everything I wanted to do in tennis,” Graf said. “Right now, I’m perfectly fit. This is no way about injuries.” In the year of her retirement, Graf was named the Greatest Female Tennis Player of the 20th Century by a panel of tennis experts assembled by the Associated Press. At the annual ESPN ESPY Awards, she earned the Female Sports Award of the Last Decade. Her monstrous career included playing seven years on the German Fed Cup team where she compiled a 20-2 singles record and led the team to champions in 1987 over the United States and 1992 over Spain. Four times in her illustrious career Graf won the season-ending Tour Championships (1987, 1989, 1993, 1995).

Although doubles was clearly not Graf’s specialty, she dabbled in the competition enough to win the 1988 Wimbledon Ladies Doubles Championship alongside Gabriela Sabatini (the duo were finalists at the 1986, 1987, and 1989 French). She also won 11 WTA titles and compiled a 173-72 record doubles record. Even before her career concluded, Graf had her eye of the future. In 1991 she founded The Steffi Graf Youth Tennis Center in Leipzig, Germany. She is also the Founder and active Chairperson of Children for Tomorrow, a non-profit foundation with the goal of implementing and developing projects to support children who have been traumatized by war or other crises. In 2001 she married fellow Hall of Famer Andre Agassi, making them one of only two married couples enshrined into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. While the debate will remain as to whom was the best female player in history, in March 2012, the Tennis Channel chose Graf as the greatest in its list of 100 greatest players of all time.

Grand Slam Best Results Steffi Graf - Tennis Documentary - YouTube Steffi Graf - Tennis Documentary Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Feb 13, 2014 Steffi Graf - Tennis Documentary Sports documentary on professional female Tennis champion - Steffi Graf. Stefanie Maria "Steffi" Graf (born 14 June 1969, in Mannheim, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany) is a former World No. 1 German tennis player. In total, Graf won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second among male and female players only to Margaret Court's 24. Her 22 singles titles mark the record for most Grand Slam wins by a tennis player (male or female) since introduction of the Open Era in 1968.

In 1988, she became the first and only tennis player (male or female) to achieve the Calendar Year Golden Slam by winning all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. She is the only player, male or female, to win 5 consecutive grand slams (1988 Australian Open to 1989 Australian Open) and 7 grand slams out of 8 in 2 calender years (1988 Australian Open to 1989 US Open, except 1989 French open) Graf was ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for a record 377 total weeks—the longest period for which any player, male or female, has held the number-one ranking since the WTA and the Association of Tennis Professionals began issuing rankings. She also holds the open era record for finishing as the year-end World No. 1 the most times, having done so on eight occasions.[4] She won 107 singles titles, which ranks her third on the WTA's all-time list after Martina Navratilova (167 titles) and Chris Evert (157 titles).

A notable feature of Graf's game was her versatility across all playing surfaces, having won each of the four Grand Slams at least four times, the only player to do so, and she is best known for her great footwork and for her powerful forehand drive. Graf won six French Open singles titles (second to Evert) and seven Wimbledon singles titles (third behind Navratilova and Helen Wills Moody). She is the only singles player (male or female) to have achieved a Calendar Year Grand Slam while playing on four different types of tennis courts (Rebound Ace, grass, clay and DecoTurf), as the Calendar Year Grand Slams won by other players before her occurred when the Australian and US Opens were still played on grass. Graf reached thirteen consecutive Grand Slam singles finals, from the 1987 French Open through to the 1990 French Open, winning nine of them. She played in 36 Grand Slam singles tournaments from the 1987 French Open, her first Grand Slam win, through the 1999 French Open, her last Grand Slam win, winning 22 titles.

She reached a total of 31 Grand Slam singles finals, third overall behind Evert (34 finals) and Navratilova (32 finals). Graf is regarded by some to be the greatest female tennis player of all time. Billie Jean King said in 1999, "Steffi is definitely the greatest women's tennis player of all time," Navratilova herself has included Graf on her list of great players. In December 1999, Graf was named the greatest female tennis player of the 20th century by a panel of experts assembled by the Associated Press. Tennis writer Steve Flink, in his book The Greatest Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century, named her as the best female player of the 20th century. In March 2012, Tennis Channel picked Graf as the greatest female tennis player ever in their list of 100 greatest tennis players of all time. Graf retired in 1999 while she was ranked World No. 3. She married former World No. 1 men's tennis player Andre Agassi in October 2001. The couple have two children -- Jaden Gil and Jaz Elle.

Graf was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2004. Category Stabbed: Monica Seles attacked by Steffi Graf fan in Germany - NY Daily News Tennis star Monica Seles knifed in the back by Steffi Graf fan at 1993 tournament in Germany Stabbed: Monica Seles attacked by Steffi Graf fan in Germany NEW YORK DAILY NEWS (New York Daily News Archives) NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Thursday, April 30, 2015, 9:00 AM (Originally published by the Daily News on Saturday, May 1, 1993; written by Blanca M. Quintanilla) Reigning tennis queen Monica Seles was knifed in the back yesterday at a tournament in Germany by a man who told police he did it to help German Steffi Graf regain her top ranking. The 19-year-old Seles has been ranked No. 1 in the world since September 1991, when she wrested the crown from Graf. Seles screamed in agony after the attacker reached out from the stands during a break in the tournament in Hamburg. She was not seriously injured.

As she was wheeled from the stadium, her 38-year-old German assailant, later identified as a lathe operator from Thuringia state in the former East Germany, was subdued and arrested. "The man said quite clearly that he did not want to kill Monica Seles," police spokesman Dankmar Lundt told reporters. "He only wanted to injure her and make her unable to play so that Steffi Graf could become number one again." 'No political motive' "According to our information there was no political motive for the attack," Lundt said when asked about possible links between the conflict in former Yugoslavia and Serbian born Seles. "The motive apparently stems alone from the personality of the man," he said. The Women's Tennis Association said Seles received death threats related to the ongoing ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Seles had returned to international competition early this week after being sidelined by a viral infection since Feb. 21. Seles suffered a gash in her upper back that narrowly missed her spinal cord. (New York Daily News Archives) The wound was stitched at the University Clinic in nearly Eppendorf, and she was expected to leave the hospital today after an overnight stay.

"She is not in pain and can speak," the doctors said in a statement. "She does not have problems breathing, the lungs are not affected." Raymond Green, who said he was a spectator at the match, told Cable News Network he heard Seles scream and saw the attacker hanging over the railing. "She jumped up and walked over to the net," Green said. "As someone came to her, she collapsed to the ground." The attack occurred when Seles was on a break during the second set of a quarterfinal match of the Citizens Cup against Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria. The stocky, knife-wielding attacker, balding and wearing a blue shirt, leaned out from the first row of the stands and lunged at Seles as she sat on a courtside bench between games. She was leading Maleeva 6-4, 4-3 at the time. The German sports news agency SID quoted a tournament doctor as saying Seles "had a lot of luck." He said the wound would heal in two weeks and Seles would be able to play again in one to three months. This called into question whether she can defend her title in the French Open starting May 24.

Known for unleashing torments of unprovoked giggles and screeching []when returning tennis balls, Seles has won eight grand slam titles since turning pro in 1989. (New York Daily News Archives) She also has amassed a sizeable fortune and likes to travel to tennis tournaments around the world accompanied by her family. Seles seldom talks about Yugoslavia and avoids controversial subjects. But at a tennis tournament in New Jersey last year, she reflected on the horrors of her homeland. She said, "I've always said peace is the biggest thing; I do hope there will be peace." Letter from Dave Talking about the difficulty of being from Yugoslavia and playing in the U.S., she said. "When I go out on the court I play for Monica and I don't like to think it's fair that a lot of people try to even bring politics into sports because they just don't mix." Mayor Dinkins, an avid tennis fan and player, wrote Seles a letter wishing her a speedy recovery. "I'm deeply disturbed and sad about your attack at the Citizens Cup in Hamburg. My thoughts and prayers are with you," he wrote. The United States Tennis Association issued a written statement condemning the attack.

It said that because of the incident, it will reexamine security measures and, if necessary, tighten security for the U.S. Open, which starts in late August in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. Ella Musolino-Albert, tournament director of the Virginia Slims Championships at Madison Square Garden, said security at the Garden is strict. "New York City is a huge place, and we do take a number of precautions with our players," she said, adding that players are escorted by security personnel. With News Wire Services

Question: Tennis star Steffi Graf was born in which country?
Answer: Germany